(Sanskrit: )
refers both to the abstract rhythmic system found in the music theory
of the Indian subcontinent and to specific metric patterns. Repeated
cyclically, these metric patterns provide a stable framework for composition
and performance. Their structural properties are marked by an ancient
system of hand gestures which subdivide the cycle into segments of equal
or unequal length and create an internal rhythmic hierarchy. Performers
and audience members are often seen gesturing with claps and waves:
the clap is produced by slapping the right palm down onto the left,
or onto the thigh; the wave is, by contrast, a silent gesture in which
the right hand moves away and turns palm-upwards, ending with a small
bounce akin to a conductor's beat that effectively marks the absence
of a clap. By convention, claps are notated with a sequence of numbers,
and waves are designated by a zero (0). However, the clap marking the
all-important beginning of a cycle (sam) is usually accorded
an X rather than the number 1.

The system of
gestures is adhered to rigorously in the southern Indian classical system
known as Karnatak music, and somewhat less rigorously in the northern
Indian classical system known as Hindustani music. The modern performance
traditions that now dominate Hindustani music are rooted in developments
that occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries:
singing (see Bonnie Wade's comprehensive discussion of this genre, 1984),
and the
and
instrumental traditions (see Allyn Miner's seminal work, 1993). These
are now routinely accompanied by the tabla drum pair,
whose provenance can also be traced to the early eighteenth century.
However, the tabla was originally used to accompany the lighter songs
and dances of the
(courtesans), and it gradually spread and rose in importance until it
finally supplanted the older and more austere
(double-headed barrel drum) as the pre-eminent drum of Hindustani classical
music by the end of the nineteenth century. It is my contention that
the main reason the clapping gestures are less rigorously adhered to
in this music is that the metric-rhythmic system of the upstart tabla
is in many ways incongruent with the older system of
that is preserved in the drumming
tradition. By contrast, the tabla's drumming patterns are largely indebted
to folk, light, and semi-classical rhythms and meters that follow different
rules. I have characterized these rhythms as grooves, by which I mean
regularly repeating accentual patterns rooted in bodily movement (i.e.
dance).

Modern Indian
scholars and performers of Hindustani traditions, particularly those
who have
come to it as a vocation and not as an hereditary occupational specialization,
have often promoted a revisionist interpretation of the music: one that
emphasizes its ancient Hindu roots, its spiritual and intellectual properties,
and its solid theoretical sophistication. The remarkable yet unpublished
dissertation of Rebecca Stewart (1974) was the first to challenge this
view by investigating :
the fixed accompanimental patterns played by the tabla. I intend to
build on this work by peeling away some of the layers to expose the
true nature of tabla .
What is revealed, I think, has implications for the retelling of Hindustani
music history.